


Against Their Better Judgement They Created Hybrid Dinosaurs

by kcalto



Category: Jurassic World (2015), Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Dialogue, Dinosaurs, Eventually there will be kissing, F/M, Lots of dialogue, M/M, Romantic walks through a prehistoric jungle, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-13 04:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4507422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kcalto/pseuds/kcalto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Combeferre had been bothering him to go with him to Jurassic World for what felt like years. In hindsight, Courfeyrac should’ve just said yes. Being somewhat in love with his best friend meant he’d go with him anywhere, and, yes, that did include a resort island filled with dinosaurs.<br/>Honestly, it was a wonder they’d never been before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> THIS HAS SPOILERS FOR THE 2015 JURASSIC WORLD MOVIE. PROBABLY DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET AND PLAN ON SEEING IT IN THE FUTURE.  
> I am 99.99% sure there aren't any major triggers or things I should be tagging, but please leave a comment if I missed something. Also I'm on tumblr at capiitalr if you wanna say hi.

Combeferre had been bothering him to go with him to Jurassic World for what felt like years. In hindsight, Courfeyrac should’ve just said yes. Being somewhat in love with his best friend meant he’d go with him anywhere, and, yes, that did include a resort island filled with dinosaurs. 

Honestly, it was a wonder they’d never been before. 

Five years out of college, five years after Enjolras was offered to be a technician at the park, five years after Combeferre and Courfeyrac continued to share the apartment Enjolras left them in. Because, really, who wanted to go through the hassle of moving when you’d end up at the other’s house more often than not anyway? 

Enjolras sent them pictures of himself in the control room of the park, but the pictures became less and less frequent as time went by. There was probably a gap of at least a year in which they didn’t speak to him. They understood, of course, they saw the news that he’d been promoted to Park Operations Manager after about a year and a half of working there. Enjolras was on the television sometimes when they unveiled a new dinosaur. Always looking prim and proper, the very definition of elegance and the air of ‘I know what I’m doing, get out of my way’. Very put together. Sorta scary, to be honest. Courfeyrac barely believed he was the same guy he and Combeferre pulled all-nighters with during college.

But Combeferre, somehow, had gotten ahold of Enjolras, and he was expecting them to arrive at the park in slightly less than three hours. 

The first thing Courfeyrac noticed when they got out of the airport and started heading towards the boat to Isla Nublar was how fucking hot Central America was. Beside him Combeferre was smiling widely, and, fuck, he should not have found that to be as endearing as it was. 

A few girls were smiling at Courfeyrac, and he felt himself smiling and waving at them before he could think of anything else to do. Something to get his mind off of Combeferre, at least. 

——

The elevator was taking forever, especially with a schedule like Enjolras’. He was three minutes late to a meeting with several visiting investors, all of whom had only one thing on their mind: what was next. Tholomyes, Listolier, Fameuil, and Blachevelle. 

Enjolras repeated their names, along with running through their faces, for the duration of the elevator ride.

When there was a ding, he took one last steadying breath before stepping off of the elevator with a pleasant expression.

“Welcome to Jurassic World.” He said, looking each of the four investors in the eye. 

He gave his speech, throwing out the statistics he always made himself memorize, and the men seemed pleased. He led them to the lab, away from the constant flow of park guests and visitors, stopping to stand in front of a screen that showed a strand of DNA labeled Indominus Rex.

“As you all surely know by now, the park has to have new, exciting attractions to keep people interested. Recent developments in gene splicing have given us the opportunity to create genetically modified dinosaurs.” Enjolras explained, pausing for dramatic effect and to take a breath.

“You can make a hybrid?” Fameuil asked, and Enjolras smiled.

“We can, so we did. The Indominus Rex was based off of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, with a few different traits added to it from various other species.”

“When will it be ready?” Tholomyes said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking skeptic about the whole situation. Enjolras was about to answer, but Cosette, their head geneticist, walked towards them, looking at everyone with that soft smile of hers. Incredibly smart and talented, she created the Indominus Rex. 

“She already is. The Indominus will be larger than anything we’ve ever seen, growing to be at least fifty feet long.” Cosette answered, telling the investors what they wanted to hear. Enjolras stepped back and let her speak with them, let them ask her all the questions she could answer, only stepping in when his knowledge was necessary. 

Because people wanted something bigger, scarier, terrible, and awesome, the true meaning of the word. So that was what they made. 

——

The second they got off of the boat, Combeferre hadn’t stopped pulling Courfeyrac along by his arm, all the while grinning like an idiot and rambling about the dinosaurs and the park. 

“Courf, this island is incredible. I read they went through fifty tons of food each week. Where should we go-“ Combeferre started, but he cut himself off, stopping in the middle of the pier and looking straight ahead, seeming vaguely annoyed. Courfeyrac looked up, and he saw someone who was ginger and short, maybe the same height as Courfeyrac, holding a tablet that had their names on it. “When do you think we’ll actually see Enjolras?” 

“Maybe he’ll show up to send us away. I don’t think anything short of a T-Rex rampage could get him away from his job.” Courfeyrac said, laughing. 

They approached the person, who seemed to smile upon recognizing them.

“Hi, my name’s Jehan. I’m Enjolras’ assistant, and I’m here to escort you to your rooms.” They, Jehan, said, extending his hand and shaking theirs. 

“Thank you, but where’s Enjolras?” Combeferre asked as the three of them began walking towards the gates of the park. 

“He’s in a meeting at the moment, but he’ll be joining you two as soon as he can.” Jehan answered cheerfully, skillfully leading them through the mass of people. 

Alright, so Enjolras was more of a dick than previously thought. Whatever. Courfeyrac was fine with spending more time with Combeferre, especially if he was smiling and wide-eyed the whole time. Would’ve been nice to see their best friend after all that time, but, again, it’s whatever.

Jehan led them to their hotel room, which had two queen sized beds, and the room looked out over the rest of the resort. He thought Combeferre was going to faint when he saw the view, and he thought he saw him get a little teary eyed. 

“You both have VIP wristbands, so you won’t need to wait in lines for anything. Enjolras has asked me to keep an eye on you, because, and I quote, ‘Ferre is going to spaz, and Courf will probably do something illegal’.” Jehan recited, and that, at least, made Combeferre laugh. Courfeyrac smiled at that rather than the joke.

“We’ll be fine, but thanks.” Courfeyrac insisted.

“He asked me to do this, so I’m going to do it. You both know him, you must know how terrifying he is when he’s angry.” He said, and, yeah, Courfeyrac had to cut him some slack for that one. 

Eventually they both relented, letting Jehan tag along and point out all of the best exhibits. Courfeyrac almost had to drag Combeferre away from the mini-dinosaur petting zoo, even when the attendant told him he was too tall. 

They went to the Mosasaurus feeding show, they both got absolutely drenched, and Combeferre was practically vibrating in his seat from excitement. And if they lost Jehan while they were exiting, then that wasn’t really anyone’s fault. 

After they were sure they were alone, at least as alone you could be while surrounded by twenty thousand strangers, Combeferre made a beeline for the Tyrannosaurus rex exhibit. 

——

Enjolras thought the meeting with the investors went well. He decided to check in on the control room, since that was technically where his desk was. The control room was busy as ever, people going in and out every few minutes or so. Bossuet and Musichetta, his assistants along with Jehan, were sitting at their desks. Enjolras took up his usual spot of standing between their desks, which happened to be the center of the room. 

“How’s the park? Any incidents?” Enjolras asked before he took a sip of his coffee. 

“There are currently nine kids in the lost and found, but that’s low considering there are twenty-two thousand six hundred eighteen guests at the moment.” Bossuet said, and he nodded. Enjolras studied the wide screen at the front of the room, it was hard to miss, covering the entire wall. A concerning red outline was around one of their sectors, though.

“Why is sector four closed?” He asked, and Musichetta sighed before pulling up a camera feed from the sector.

“A Pachycephalosaurus got out of the arena. When they butt heads they short out their trackers, and Dr. Fauchelevent is working on fixing that bug.” She said, and the camera did indeed show the Pachycephalosaurus on its side with three park officers around it.

“How long until they can get it out of there?” Enjolras asked.

“Enj, that animal just got sedated out of its mind.” Bossuet reminded him. 

“The sector will be live again in less than an hour, assuming they can get her onto the truck as safely as possible.” Musichetta said, and Enjolras nodded.

“Good. Notify me when it’s open again.” He said, and then he turned around to leave, because he had another meeting. 

There was barely enough time to finish his coffee before he had to go meet with the owner of the park, Jean Valjean. Who was apparently getting his helicopter’s license and flying them to the asset he wanted to see. 

That was fine, it wasn’t like the clumsy flying made Enjolras nauseous or anything. 

“How are the dinosaurs, though?” Mr. Valjean asked as they were, thankfully, getting out of the helicopter. Enjolras had been explaining various things about his park, telling him of how the renovations were going, how many people came on average, all the way to the Indominus rex paddock. 

“Guest satisfaction is at an all time high, and-“ 

“No, no, the dinosaurs. How are they, are they happy?” He asked, turning to look at Enjolras.

“We don’t have any way to measure their emotions, Mr. Valjean.” He said, and Mr. Valjean sighed dramatically. The dinosaurs were healthy, and they all seemed to be mentally stable. 

“We’ve talked about this, Enjolras, you can call me Jean.” 

“Jean, then, there isn’t a way to know if the dinosaurs are happy.” Enjolras said with a nod.

“Of course, what was I thinking, there’s no way for them to fill out a short survey at the end of their stay or anything.” Jean said as he started walking towards the Indominus rex’s containment center. “Why is it still under construction?”

“She’s larger than we expected.” Enjolras explained, leading him up the stairs to the viewing area of the paddock. 

Six floor to ceiling windows, overlooking the contained area. 

Enjolras could see the the scaly, pale skin of the animal through the brush and the trees. Judging by the size of the breath Jean took, he did, too. 

“Where’s the other one?” Jean asked after a second.

“She ate it after a week of being moved here from the lab.” Enjolras said flatly. 

“Are you sure it can’t escape this enclosure?” He asked, still staring at the dinosaur.

“At the moment, yes, but that’s why we’re building the walls higher and thicker.” 

Valjean continued to regard the Indominus in silence for another minute or so, and Enjolras stood by patiently.

“Does it know we’re here?” Jean asked, stepping closer to the glass.

“She has thermal heat sensing capabilities.” He said, so, yes. The giant dinosaur did, probably, know they were there. 

If the way she was still standing in the same spot as she had been when they walked in was anything to go off of, then she definitely knew they were there. 

“Do you think it will scare the kids?” Enjolras asked, because that was Valjean and the investors’ main goal. 

“The kids? This’ll terrify the parents.” Jean said quietly. That stunned Enjolras, because he didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Is that a good thing?” He asked.

“It’s an excellent thing.” Valjean nodded, and Enjolras relaxed. “I’d like to get an expert to look at this, though. Have you met our behavioral researcher on the Velociraptors? Ex-navy, his name’s Grantaire.” He went on, and Enjolras wanted to groan. Groaning wouldn’t be professional, though, so he settled for closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath.

“Yes, I’ve met him.” He said curtly. 

“Good, because I want his opinion on all of this before I leave the island.” Of course he did. 

“I’ll tell him as soon as I can.” 

Sadly, ‘as soon as he could’ came around pretty quickly after Jean Valjean dropped Enjolras off at the visitor’s center. 

He was walking out of the lab, because he had to say hello to Cosette whenever he could, when a hand grabbed his arm and jerked him back.

“Enjolras!” A voice that could only belong to Courfeyrac said before there was a pair of arms around his neck, and he had a face full of brown hair. Enjolras saw Combeferre standing next to him, smiling widely and looking taller than he remembered him. Courfeyrac, of course, was still a few inches shorter than Enjolras, which Enjolras thought was nice.

“Hi, it’s so nice to see you guys again.” He said, eagerly hugging him back. Courfeyrac pulled back after a moment, and Enjolras was able to hug Combeferre. It was nice, seeing his best friends after so long. Combeferre had different glasses, though, which was odd. 

“I’ve missed you, Enj.” Combeferre said when he stepped back.

“How are you two do-“ Enjolras started, but his cell phone ringer cut him off. He quickly turned his phone off, because he could stand to be away from his job for a minute. “Sorry. Busy day.” He apologized, but Courfeyrac waved him off.

“We’re good. When are you gonna be done with work?” He asked, and Enjolras sighed. 

“Soon, I hope. Wait, where’s Jehan?” 

“Bathroom.” Combeferre answered quickly, and Enjolras nodded as his phone started ringing again.

“Okay, I’ll find you both when I’m finished up here. Is that okay? It may be around nine, what time do you guys go to bed?” He asked.

“Just call when you’re done, we’re usually up for anything no matter what.” Courfeyrac said with a sigh, and Enjolras had the feeling he was messing something up.

“I will, and I promise that tomorrow will be much better, I’ve cleared my whole schedule.” He said, trying to nod reassuringly.

“Good, we’ll hold you to that.” Combeferre said, and Enjolras took that as an opportunity to answer the phone and start walking out to his car. 

Because, as much as he wished he could stay with Courfeyrac and Combeferre, he had to speak with Grantaire. 

——

“Hey! Delta! Keep your shit together.” Grantaire shouted down to the four velociraptors, because he was trying to keep their attention fixed on him. He pressed the clicker down, making a loud click that the raptor responded to.

“What the fuck, Charlie, we’ve talked about this. Eyes on me.” He said, and he made more clicks. Charlie, eventually, looked at him. Blue and Echo, the other two velociraptors, were doing well and listening to him, because they knew their shit. Not that he didn’t love the other two raptors, they all held an equal share of his heart. They were amazing listeners. It was very calming to vent while feeding them.

After he tossed each of them a mouse as a treat, he snapped his wrist to one side, and they were running off again. 

“That was good, R.” Eponine said, coming to stand beside him and pat his shoulder once. 

“Definitely better than most days.” Bahorel said with a hearty laugh, and they both walked beside him around the top of the paddock.

“Try every day.” Grantaire muttered. Bahorel groaned and slung an arm around his shoulder.

“You’re just being hard on yourself. Think about it, no one’s ever made that much progress with a raptor, and, hey, look at that, you did.” He said. 

“Oh, Javert’s been waiting for you since your date with the raptors started.” Eponine said at about the same time as he saw Javert standing, leaning on the railing and looking at the velociraptors. Javert was in charge of InGen’s security division on the island.

Grantaire didn’t appreciate the way he was looking at them, and he had a bad feeling about the man in general. He meant well, but Grantaire still didn’t like him hanging around the raptors.

He was protective of them. So what. Sue him.

“You’ve done well with them.” Javert said, and Eponine and Bahorel took that as their cue to leave. Yeah, those assholes left Grantaire to fend for himself. 

“Thanks.” He said simply as he continued down the stairs on the outside of the containment, because it was time for them to actually be fed soon.

“Have you thought about a field test since I was last here?” He asked.

“No, because it’s a terrible idea.” 

“How? They can search areas drones can’t, they’re vicious hunters, and you’ve shown everyone that they can take commands.” 

“Hey, what do your drones do if you forget to feed them? Because a raptor would put that ‘vicious hunter’ trait to work and turn their back on you real fucking quick.” He snapped. Javert just shook his head and continued following him.

“You can control them, though, they aren’t gonna turn on you.” Javert said insistently.

“What you just saw is the product of months and months of failure. You’re not going to effectively weaponize them.” Grantaire said, opening the door to the smaller cage that led to the main enclosure, separated by, of course, yet another reinforced fence. Bahorel and Eponine were already in there, and they shut the door behind him.

“What I just saw proves otherwise.” Javert said. 

“Why am I even trying, he’s only gonna learn what’ll help him.” He mumbled to himself, dropping his head back and looking up at the sky for some sort of strength to not kick Javert in the balls. 

“Chill, you’ll have alone time with your girlfriends in a-“ Eponine said, teasing him about how much he loved the raptors, but a panicked shouting cut her off. Much more of a big brother and little sister relationship if you asked him, but whatever. 

“Loose pig in the cage!” Someone shouted, and Bahorel immediately went up the fence to look, and, yeah, there was a small pig running around the larger pen. Followed by four velociraptors. 

Poor pig. 

Grantaire continued to get their food ready, right up until Eponine hit his shoulder and there was a loud thump from the paddock.

“Fuck, Feuilly fell into the cage.” Bahorel let out with a sigh, and his face was slack as he watched Feuilly, one of the other behavioral researchers beside Grantaire, crawl off his back and slowly scoot back in terror from the approaching raptors. 

It didn’t exactly register to him what he was doing as he was doing it, but Grantaire found himself pressing the red button that opened the gate to the large pen with the raptors in it, while Eponine asked him whether or not he had a fucking death wish. 

“Hey, hey, no, Blue, look at me.” Grantaire said as he put himself between the raptors and Feuilly, who quickly scrambled back behind the gate, which was still open. Blue moved again, though, eyeing Feuilly. “What did I just say? Eyes on me, Blue.” He shouted, and he definitely got her attention that time. Bahorel swore at him. 

It was weird that Grantaire was noticing that and not the fact that, oh, four velociraptors were staring him in the eye from five feet in front of him. He saw movement out of his left eye, though, and slowly turned his head to see one of the raptors steadily getting closer to him.

“Echo, no. Stay. Hey, no. No, don’t give me that shit, Charlie.” He said forcefully as he continued to back up towards the gate. “Close the gate.” He said quietly.

“Oh my god, you actually want to die.” Eponine said.

“With you on the other side? Fuck, no.” Bahorel said.

“Just do it.” He said. 

“R, no.” Feuilly said. 

“Trust me and close the gate.” Grantaire said calmly, and he heard an annoyed sigh from Eponine before the gate started to close. “Okay, easy. Watch yourself, Delta. Hey, no, stay.” He said when Delta took a larger step forward. 

He dove underneath the gate when he had them all at least sort of listening to him, because at least that way it didn’t feel as much like running from a dog. The gate closed, and he heard the raptors hitting the gate behind him to get at them. 

“Thank you.” Feuilly said, nodding at him once in gratitude. 

“Yeah, welcome. Don’t do it again.” Grantaire said, and Feuilly chuckled. Bahorel helped him up, because the ginger was still fairly stunned after the whole ‘falling flat on his back and staring death-personified-as-raptors in the face’ experience. Grantaire didn’t blame him on taking a minute to recuperate. 

Javert, on the other hand, had probably watched the whole thing at a comfortable distance away, and then he was smirking at Grantaire. 

“No.” Grantaire said, because the word worked on velociraptors. Javert just turned around and walked away, and Grantaire groaned. 

He was going to go home, take a shower, take a fucking nap, because dealing with shithead military freaks was not in his job description. 

“Come on, control wants you on the phone.” Eponine said, jerking her head over her shoulder.

“Nope, not today, I’m clocking out.” He said, standing up and shaking his head the whole time. Eponine laughed at him.

“Yeah, fine, I’ll tell them you’re on the toilet.” She said, and Grantaire didn’t have it in him to care at that point. 

—— 

Musichetta had tried to get a hold of Grantaire, and even Bossuet called his cell phone once. He didn’t answer any of their calls, and Enjolras was getting frustrated. After three other missed calls, he gave up and got in his car to drive down to Grantaire’s trailer. 

Because Enjolras knew where that was. Because they might have gone on a date that didn’t end well. Because he might have had feelings for Grantaire. 

But that was all irrelevant. 

He parked the car and got out, sighing and reminding himself to stay professional. That was hard to do when Grantaire was sitting on a crate next to his motorcycle in a threadbare shirt that did wonderful things for his chest. 

“Enjolras? Oh, god, am I being fired?” Grantaire asked with mock panic as Enjolras walked over to stand next to him, which was hard to do in his shoes on the uneven dirt. Dress shoes were not meant for that terrain. 

“No, I actually need you to look at an asset for me.” 

“You know I’m always happy to look at your asset.” He said with a shit-eating grin, looking up at Enjolras.

“Mr. Grantaire, will you please accompany me to the attraction?” Enjolras said, and Grantaire frowned almost immediately.

“What’s with the formalities?” He said as he stood up, that time looking down at Enjolras. Enjolras wasn’t exactly short, more like barely above average size, but Grantaire was taller and lankier than he was. 

“Jean Valjean, the owner of this park, would like for you to inspect the asset and her paddock.” 

“Why me?” Grantaire asked, tilting his head slightly the side. It made Enjolras want to roll his eyes.

“You control the raptors, and-“ He started, but Grantaire barked out a laugh.

“I don’t control anything. We respect each other. Unlike some people.” He said, quirking an eyebrow at him before he walked up the steps to his patio. Enjolras couldn’t help but gape.

“Excuse me?” He asked, following him up the patio.

“You kept our date on a schedule. I mean, there was an itinerary, like, what the fuck, man.” Grantaire said as he started putting up the tools he was using on his motorcycle.

“You wore dirty shorts and a t-shirt.” Enjolras said, because that was annoying when he showed up wearing a nicer version of his usual dress pants, a button down shirt, and a tie. It was downright embarrassing when he tried very hard to look nice, and Grantaire didn’t seem to care at all. 

“Paint splatters on clothes don’t make them dirty, for fuck’s sake, Enjolras.” 

“It doesn’t matter. Look, just.” He started, but he had to sigh, gathering his thoughts for a moment. “I’d appreciate it if you would come with me.” And he was truly trying to keep his calm. Grantaire sighed and seemed to take pity on him.

“Give me a minute to change.” Grantaire said before disappearing into his bungalow. Enjolras nodded to himself and slowly walked back to his car. 

And if they rode back to the Indominus’ paddock in silence, then that wasn’t Enjolras’ fault. 

“I did not know this was up here.” Grantaire said when he finally parked the car in front of the containment, safely away from the construction vehicles.

“Surely you’ve heard of the newest asset.” Enjolras said, getting out of the car. 

“Yeah, who hasn’t, but I had no idea it was this… isolated.” 

“Safety is our number one concern, and we had to move her when she continued to grow.” He said, walking towards the viewing room, and Grantaire followed him.

“She?” 

“She’s the first hybrid dinosaur. Dr. Fauchelevent is a genius when it comes to gene splicing.” Enjolras explained. 

“You just went and made a new dinosaur?” Grantaire asked, and Enjolras glanced back at him to see his equivalent of a processing screen face, which did nothing but worry him.

“Every few years the park needs a new attraction to keep the guests interested.”

“They’re dinosaurs, how the fuck do you need something more interesting than that.” 

“Tell that to our attendance records. The Indominus will be ready for visitors in three weeks, which is already the longest the park has gone without a new exhibit.” Enjolras said, climbing the stairs to the viewing room door.

“The Indominus?” Grantaire asked with raised eyebrows.

“The Indominus rex. Easy for four year olds to pronounce, and they wouldn’t let me name her Maximilien.” He said, and Grantaire chuckled at that.

“Still obsessed with France, I see.” He commented as Enjolras typed in the key code for the door. He only smirked at him in response to his remark. 

When he opened the door that time, he didn’t immediately see the dinosaur. That wasn’t unusual, she seemed to do as she pleased. Grantaire’s face went right back to being concerned with that narrowed, calculating gaze of his. What was unusual, though, was the dinosaur not making an appearance within a few seconds of someone entering the room. Thermal sensing capabilities and everything. 

“Give her a steer.” Enjolras ordered the technician, who quickly set about typing a command into the computer. 

“You feed her with that?” Grantaire asked when he saw the wire lowering the large piece of meat into the habitat.

“We tried hand-feeding her, but after one woman almost lost an arm, we decided this would be safer.” He said. 

“She’s the only one in there?” He asked warily.

“Of course. She ate her sister the moment she was slightly bigger than her.” Enjolras said, because that was obvious.

“And she’s never been out of this cell?” 

“What would we do? Play dates with the T-rex and your velociraptors?” He said with a scoff. Grantaire sighed, but his eyes were wide.

“Ideally, yeah, something along those lines. Animals raised in isolation aren’t the most stable.” 

“The raptors don’t leave their cage.” 

“No, but they have other raptors and myself. They develop social skills, interact and learn with each other. Right now, the only thing that dinosaur is interacting with is that crane.” Grantaire said, pointing at the crane that was slowly rising up, sans piece of meat. The Indominus still hadn’t emerged, though. 

“Where is she,” He said under his breath as he grabbed a table to check for her heat signature. 

“I know I’m new around here, but have those always been there?” Grantaire asked at the same time as Enjolras’ stomach seemed to drop to the floor. The heat signature came up negative, nothing found in any of the six sections of the paddock. He looked to where Grantaire was pointing, seeing large claw marks going all the way up the cell.

“Fuck, how could she get out,” Enjolras said, again, mostly to himself.

“These doors haven’t been opened in months.” The guy at the computer said. 

“Okay, okay, right, she has a tracker implant that can be located from control. I’ll go down there.” Enjolras said, trying not to panic. He looked to Grantaire as he opened the door, but he just shook his head. 

“I’ll stay here.” He said, and Enjolras nodded frantically as he walked out and all but ran to his car. 

Musichetta answered the phone on the second ring, and it took an alarming amount of self control to not scream at her. 

“I need you to locate the Indominus rex.” Enjolras said as he drove at what was likely very much past the speed limit. 

“What?” She asked, understandably confused.

“Just do it.” He said, maybe shouting a bit that time. 

“Okay, putting you on speaker phone.” Musichetta said, and then Enjolras could hear the various hums and beeps from the control room. He wished he was already there, wished he knew what the hell was going on. 

“The Indominus rex is in her paddock, Enjolras.” Bossuet’s voice said, sounding awfully confused. 

“That isn’t possible, I was just there.” He said, and it probably wasn’t safe to be driving at that speed while on the phone. 

Probably wasn’t safe to be the sole manager of a dinosaur park, either.

“She’s in the— There are people inside the paddock.” Musichetta said, sucking in a breath of air. Fuck, Grantaire. 

“Get them out of there.” And if he shouted, then that was perfectly reasonable reaction to people being inside of a cage with a carnivorous dinosaur that, apparently, would have a lack of social skills. 

He heard Bossuet call someone, heard him say, ‘Paddock eighteen, evacuate the premises, the Indominus is in the paddock. Do you copy?’

Enjolras’ throat felt tight, and, furthermore, he didn’t know his car could go that fast. 

“Tell me what the hell is going on!” Enjolras yelled, because he could not lose Grantaire to a fucking dinosaur. 

“They aren’t-“ Musichetta started, but there was more talking on the other end that she cut herself off to hear. Enjolras could barely hear anything, because his chest felt heavy, and his lungs seemed incapable of holding air, and he couldn’t very well walk into that control room sobbing. 

——

The walls of the paddock were forty feet high, and the claw marks spanned one whole section from the top to the bottom. Grantaire was standing behind one of the maintenance guys who was trying to figure out how she got the door open without alerting anything, and Grantaire had his hands on his hips in that Superman pose, because it made him feel powerful. He was tall, he could pull it off. The guy who’d been working the computer from the viewing room was standing beside him, shifting his stance uneasily every second or so. 

The computer guy’s walkie talkie started going off, though, but it was a lot of static. He heard them say paddock eighteen, premises, and copy. So that was helpful. The guy asked them to repeat it, and the next communication was clear as a bell. 

“The Indominus is still in the cage, evacuate now.” The voice said again. 

Grantaire immediately grabbed at both the technician and the computer guy to start running for the exit, which was conveniently located on the other side of the cage. The technician stayed there and started keying in the code to open that gate, but Grantaire burst into a sprint. There was a large rustling from the trees, though, and, okay, then there was a white dinosaur standing about thirty feet in front of him. He’d seen the Tyrannosaurus rex, and that thing was enormous. The Indominus almost made him shit his pants, though. 

So many teeth. So many teeth that were too close to Grantaire’s head for comfort. He quickly turned to run back towards the gate which was now open, and the computer guy did that but slower. 

Grantaire heard an interesting and nauseating sound behind him, but he’d be fucked if he looked back, so he kept running towards the gate which, for some fucking reason, was closing. Enjolras was at control, though, he wouldn’t let it close with him on the inside. Maybe. Their date was pretty bad. (“Who the hell doesn’t like tequila?”, “Someone who has to run a theme park and take care of twenty thousand people daily.”)

He was running, flat out sprinting for the opening, and he felt the dinosaur’s breath on his backside. The opening continued to get smaller and smaller, and he had to turn sideways to get through it, but he was out of the cage, and he really deserved a day off. 

The problem with there being any opening in the paddock, though, was that if Grantaire could fit through it, then the Indominus could probably get a claw or two in there. She did just that, according to the sound of bending metal and various crashes. 

Grantaire slid underneath one of the construction vehicles, trying to think of someway to not get eaten. His eyes landed on the fuel tank, though, and then he was quickly digging his pocketknife out of his pocket. He managed to get most of the gas on himself, and, unfortunately, some ended up in his mouth. Whatever, he’d deal with that later. Assuming the gas worked. Dinosaurs have an unparalleled sense of smell, mask your smell, no one liked eating gasoline. 

At least he had somewhat of a plan, the technician was hiding on the other side of a staff pickup truck. He didn’t think there was anything he could think of that would have prepared him for what happened next.

The dinosaur stalked away from the cage slowly, at least slower than she had been moving. She moved around the truck that the technician was behind, pausing for a moment to smell the air or something. The technician peered around the side of the truck, and Grantaire was glad he at least didn’t see the dinosaur’s head. Just the tail. A very large, intimidating tail, but the technician went back to crouching in front of the truck where he had been. 

The Indominus wasn’t having any of that, though, and she used her head to knock the truck over, causing it to roll and bump into the piece of construction equipment Grantaire was laying underneath. 

A second passed, and the technician was face to face with the Indominus rex. Grantaire watched with a twisted gut as the dinosaur’s mouth dropped down and ate him, leaving nothing but large pool of blood where he had been. 

She was smart, though, the dinosaur knew there were once three people in that cage. The claw marks, tricking the thermal scanners somehow, she tricked them into thinking she’d escaped. The Indominus rex was smart, and she knew she’d only found two of the three people she’d seen. It was all just like hide and seek for her, and Grantaire tried to take a deep breath as inconspicuously as possible. No movement, smelled like gasoline, she shouldn’t want to eat him. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the giant mouth of the dinosaur, right next to the bottom of the construction vehicle he was using to hide from her. The few seconds felt like hours, and Grantaire was passively thinking that none of that would have happened if he didn’t have such a stupid crush on Enjolras. Like he’d said, he had twenty thousand people to keep up with, he didn’t need a boyfriend he’d just have to make time for. Grantaire was a mess, though, and he’d follow Enjolras anywhere. Even to look at the asset people were rightly unsure about using as an attraction around actual, living people. 

He had an odd habit of thinking about shit that didn’t really matter when his life was quite possibly about to end. It’d happened twice while he was in the navy, twice in his five years in the navy. Then it’d happened twice in one day, and, fuck, he needed a vacation. 

The Indominus eventually left him, though, deciding he wasn’t worth the taste of gasoline to kill. After he heard her giant footsteps fade away, he let out the breath he’d been holding. Somehow, he didn’t start panicking. He rolled out from underneath the vehicle, and he found another truck that’d been abandoned by sane people leaving when the giant fucking dinosaur got out of it’s paddock. 

——

VIP passes were a gift from the amusement park line Gods, Courfeyrac decided. Their wait time was minimal, five minutes at most for the Mosasaurus show, and he and Combeferre instantly got a gyrosphere, as opposed to the advertised three and a half hour wait. Combeferre felt a little bad about that, but eventually the fact that he was surrounded by dinosaurs took over, and he was back to being whole-heartedly excited. 

Courfeyrac thought his stupid smile was beautiful, and he dropped his head back against the seat of the giant hamster ball in anguish. Combeferre, of course, didn’t notice.

“You’re having fun, right?” Combeferre asked as Courfeyrac grabbed the joystick that controlled the sphere and made it go forward. He was sort of taken aback by that question, though. A week’s stay at a theme park with his best friend, why wouldn’t he be having fun?

“Yeah, duh. The seven dollar sodas are a bit much, but I’ll live.” He said with a chuckle.

“I know you’re not a fan of dinosaurs, though, and this trip pulled you away from your firm.” 

“I’m not a fan in the sense that you’re a fan, no. I mean, this must be like heroin for you. Dinosaurs are cool, though, like, there’s something awesome about things that were extinct but now aren’t.” Courfeyrac said, because everyone liked dinosaurs. Well, most people, and he was one of those people. 

“Yes, but you’re firm. You’ve had that case you’ve been working on, and-“

“And the case will still be there when I get back. Trust me, I’d much rather be here than there. I’m not Enjolras, I do enjoy vacations.” He said, and Combeferre laughed, turning his head to look at him. Courfeyrac glanced over, and Ferre was smiling again. At him. 

Courfeyrac felt like he was about to do something stupid, so he looked back outside at the valley they were in, and, wow, that was a tall dinosaur.

“What’s that?” He asked, tilting his head towards Combeferre for him to answer and probably start rambling about the species. 

“The Apatosaurus, and the other one is a Triceratops.” He said slowly, pointing at each of them. Courfeyrac rolled his eyes and jerked the sphere backwards to get back at him.

“Yeah, thanks.” He said, and Combeferre laughed. Courfeyrac’s phone started ringing before he could say anything else, though. He saw that it was Enjolras and started hoping he’d say he could hang out.

“Hey—where—back—resort.” Was all Courfeyrac heard Enjolras say, though.

“Enj, hey, we’re breaking up, shitty reception.” He said.

“Go—the resort—when you—call—dinosaur—broke.” Enjolras said, continuing to speak, and none of it was very helpful.

“Look, I’m not hearing anything sensible. I’ll call you when we’re done, okay?” He said, and he hung up after he heard a few more seconds of static. 

Eventually, though, Combeferre started talking about the dinosaurs and how stunning it all was, how scientists have come further in the past two decades than they did with a century of archaeology alone. 

About fifteen minutes into the ride, the informational screen alerted them that the attraction was closed and to return immediately to their hotel. Combeferre’s face fell, and, dammit, Courfeyrac couldn’t exactly let that be. 

“Hey, what’s another five minutes?” He prompted, and Combeferre looked at him skeptically.

“They said it’s closed, though.” He said, unsure of the offer.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. We have VIP passes, I doubt we can get into that much trouble. Worse case scenario, Enjolras is bailing us out of theme park jail.” Courfeyrac shrugged, and Combeferre seemed to be weighing the options. 

“Alright, but I want to drive.” He said, and there was something about seeing his nerdiest friend get all rebellious and drive the sphere as fast as it would go. 

Courfeyrac happily sat back and let him do what he wanted, because that look on his face was priceless. He drove them around for several more minutes, and they approached a fence while Courfeyrac was watching one of the Apatosauruses. That probably wasn’t the correct pluralization of it, but he’d bother Combeferre about that later. 

“Woah.” He heard Combeferre breath out, and that made Courfeyrac turn his head to follow his line of sigh. The fence in front of them was broken, a small section of it ripped off with wires sparking every few seconds or so. Courfeyrac was intrigued, and he felt himself leaning forward, a slow smile spreading on his face.

“Give me the joystick.” He said, moving his hand towards it before remembering Combeferre’s hand was still on it, and he was most definitely not about to turn into that Hollywood cliche. 

“No, I’m driving. Just making sure you’re aware.” Combeferre said, and, yes, that was much more like the tunnel visioned dork he’d grown up with. They broke into a museum once. The broken fence adventure was slightly reminiscent of that. 

Courfeyrac grinned as the gyrosphere rolled forward, and Combeferre was giggling next to him. Literally giggling, that twenty-eight year old dork of a tree was giggling, because they were going off roads at a dinosaur theme park, and Courfeyrac’s chest felt tight, but in a good way. 

“ ‘Ferre, can I-“ He started, about to do something stupid, but Combeferre made a gasping sound.

“Look! Oh, gosh, oh my gosh, there’s a baby Ankylosaurus.” Combeferre said excitedly, hitting his arm with his free hand. Four large tank-like creatures with what looked like a club as a tail were in a clearing in front of them, and there was a smaller one standing close to one of the adult-sized ones. “It’s so cute, holy crap. Hold on, I need to get a picture of this before—“ He said, rambling again before he stopped talking. Courfeyrac was puzzled for a moment, until he saw a large arrangement of teeth being reflected in the glass. “Please tell me you see the teeth.” He said, much more quietly that time.

“Yeah.” Courfeyrac said, willing himself not to turn around to see the thing that was connected to those teeth. “Drive forward, please.” 

“This sphere only goes five miles an hour, and I’m assuming that dinosaur is much faster than that.” 

“The ankle-sauruses will slow it down, please just drive.” And Combeferre, thankfully, pressed the joystick forward quickly. 

The dinosaur let out a horrifying roar, and it startled all of the ankle-tanks. They moved, the dinosaur caught up to them and tried to grab them, and the gyrosphere ended up pin-balling around between the dinosaurs. The gyrosphere became just a sphere, because he and Combeferre were spinning, going upside down more than enough times, and he was glad he hadn’t eaten anything before that ride. 

That didn’t stop him from screaming, because that’s what you did when something that was obviously larger than the T-rex was trying to eat you. One of the ankle-o-dinosaurs’ tails hit the sphere, sending them flying back, and Courfeyrac was pretty sure they bounced off the dinosaur with the teeth at one point. It was horrifying. 

They stopped spinning, eventually, but they were upside down and had a lovely view of the large dinosaur tearing in to the ankle-tanks. Combeferre let out a small whimper at that, but a loud buzzing sound grabbed Courfeyrac’s attention. He looked up, technically down to the ground, to see his phone had fallen out and was ringing. Enjolras was calling him, and the vibrate setting was making the glass make that godawful sound, and Combeferre was hitting his arm again, except much more urgently than before. 

Courfeyrac tried to reach for it, because he was closest to it, but his fingers barely grazed it. 

“Courf,” Combeferre said, and he’d stopped hitting his arm. 

“I’ve almost got it, just—“ He said, stopping when Combeferre made another sound that made him look up, and, oh, a little pee might’ve come out then. 

The dinosaur with the teeth had it’s eye pressed up to the gyrosphere, actively watching them. The phone was still ringing relentlessly on the ceiling, vibrating the entire inner glass part of the sphere. 

“The glass’ll hold.” Courfeyrac said, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about. The dinosaur stood up to its full height, which was terrifying, and then it circled the sphere once before it tried to bite them, and it barely managed to scratch the glass. “See? We’re fine.” Courfeyrac said, and that was for him as much as it was to reassure Combeferre. 

The dinosaur left them for a moment, but then it slashed a claw at the glass, and the glass broke, there was a dinosaur claw a foot away from Courfeyrac’s head. It got its other claws through the glass, and then it was picking up the hamster ball before slamming it back down on the ground, trying to break it open. 

“Seatbelt, open the buckle,” Combeferre was saying over the sound of breaking glass, metal under pressure, the alarming sounds from the dinosaur, and Courfeyrac’s screaming. He clumsily got his seatbelt unbuckled, and then Combeferre was grabbing his arm as they fell out of the Gyrosphere. A second passed before Combeferre was pulling him along behind him, and, okay, they were running from the toothy dinosaur that was still preoccupied by the ball. 

Combeferre was shouting things, probably telling him to run, but Courfeyrac was sort of freaking out. He heard loud stomping behind them and guessed the dinosaur figured out they weren’t inside of the ball anymore. Their running brought them directly to a cliff, right next to a waterfall that dumped into a small lake about forty feet below.

“Fuck, we have to jump,” Courfeyrac said as they stopped at the edge of the cliff. Combeferre nodded frantically.

“Okay, on three?” Combeferre said, and of course he nodded at that. “One,” Courfeyrac began to reevaluate his life choices, and he saw Combeferre take off his glasses and hold them in his right hand, “Two,” Combeferre grabbed his arm again, and the dinosaur was getting closer. Courfeyrac turned his head to look at it, and, nope, he shouldn’t have done that, but then Combeferre was saying three, and he’d never wanted to have been stuck in a long line more than at that moment. 

The water was cool, surprisingly so, and Courfeyrac didn’t didn’t a big enough breath before going underwater, so he tried to go up. Because he might have been stuck in a park full of carnivorous dinosaurs, but he still had basic self-preservation. Combeferre grabbed ahold of his hand, though, pulling him back down for several more moments. 

When they finally resurfaced, the dinosaur was gone, and Courfeyrac was gasping for air as he and Combeferre made their way to the muddy shore. The second Courf crawled himself onto mostly dry land, he stopped and looked back at ‘Ferre. 

He was on the ground next to him, on his stomach and propping himself up on his elbows, equally gasping for air with a look on his face that basically said, ‘I can’t believe we just did that’. It was a stupid look and sort of (really) made Courfeyrac want to kiss him. Combeferre looked at him, and then they both started laughing. 

“We almost just died.” Courfeyrac pointed out, still laughing. Combeferre threw an arm around his shoulder, and it was a weird sort of a hug. A good hug after almost dying alongside your best friend. 

——

The control room had never been that quiet, at least as far as Enjolras knew. He walked off of the elevator and into the large room, and all eyes were on him. Bossuet had told him Grantaire was alive, said he’d called to say he was on his way there. That, at least, gave Enjolras some of his control back. Jean Valjean was in the room, looking sorrowful and concerned.

He’d called Courfeyrac in the car ride over, but the reception was bad, and he’d only heard about every third word he was saying. Enjolras heard ‘hamster ball’, though, so he knew the gyrospheres would notify them to go back to the resort. They were safe. 

The disgusted and teary-eyed faces looking at him told him not everyone made it, though. Enjolras took a steadying breath and walked to stand between Bossuet and Musichetta’s desks, where he usually stood. 

“Are we still tracking the Indominus?” Enjolras asked, because it was taking him a moment to focus on the screen and what the numbers read.

“Yes, she’s four miles from the nearest beacon.” Musichetta answered. Enjolras nodded. Four miles away from the nearest fence, four miles until they ran into another dinosaur or civilian. Enjolras could work with four miles.

“Put out a park wide alert-“ He started.

“Do we really need to worry the guests with this? Can’t you close the rides, say it’s due to a technical difficulty?” Valjean interrupted. Enjolras wanted to argue with him, but he owned the park and paid Enjolras a fine amount to basically keep him, his park, and his dinosaurs happy. 

“Close the attractions, then. Everything north of the resort, for now.” He said. That would double their buffer zone. That would work. Valjean didn’t go against him on that, which Enjolras was thankful for. 

Bossuet and Musichetta started calling different ride managers, and the map began to show red crosses over the various rides which were closed. 

“Sir, you can’t go in there.” One of the security officers was saying as someone got off of the elevator. Enjolras turned around to see Grantaire standing there, looking furious but alive. He wanted to run to him and hug him, never let go, because the incident with the Indominus was much too close for comfort. 

People were relying on him, though, on his ability to keep it together. He could fall apart later, once the Indominus was safely in a paddock. 

“What the fuck kind of monster did Cosette cook up in that lab?” Grantaire said as he forced his way past the security guard to walk closer to Enjolras. 

“Grantaire-“

“No, don’t ‘Grantaire’ me, I watched two people get eaten by that dinosaur, and oh my god, why have you not sent out ACU to kill it?!” He said when he saw the large screen in the front of the room and did not see any Asset Containment Units on there. 

“ACU is getting ready as we speak.” Enjolras said. Grantaire nodded once.

“There’s an M134 on this island, send that with them.” He said forcefully. Of course the ex-navy knew about their heaviest piece of artillery. 

“We’ve invested twenty six million dollars into that dinosaur, we are not killing her.” Valjean said quickly. Grantaire looked aghast, completely horrified at the statement.

“So you-you what? Sent them out there with non-lethal weapons?” He asked incredulously.

“They will subdue the Indominus rex, and-“ Enjolras started.

“She’ll slaughter them!” Grantaire shouted.

“You are not in control here, Grantaire. Leave or be quiet, but shouting will not change anyone’s decision.” Enjolras said, snapping slightly. Grantaire was quiet after that, but his presence was deafening. 

Two ACUs drove to the Indominus, and it only took about fifteen minutes before Musichetta said the dinosaur had stopped moving, and by that time the ACUs were barely a quarter of a mile away. 

The captain of the two teams, Westin, got out of his car first. Enjolras almost wished he was there, if only to know what was going on better. All they had in the control room was a live feed from the cameras on their helmets, which, although helpful, they only saw so much. Westin approached the dinosaur, and the entire control room seemed to be watching as his red dot got closer and closer to the Indominus’ much larger red dot on the big screen. 

Westin’s camera showed a creek, but there wasn’t a dinosaur anywhere. Even when his dot was directly on top of the Indominus’. He bent down, and then he was holding a piece of meat with skin on it that was undoubtedly from the Indominus, and there was a flashing and beeping tracker stuck in the middle of it. 

“It removed the tracker, but the blood hasn’t clotted yet, so it must be close.” Westin’s voice said over the feet. 

“She removed her tracker, how would she know to do that?” Enjolras said, mostly thinking out loud.

“Must’ve remembered where they put it in.” Grantaire said quietly, right as there was rustling on the other end of ACU’s line. 

“It can camouflage!” Westin shouted as the Indominus appeared on screen, her skin changing from green and brown to blend in with the trees to her original white. The Indominus charged towards the ACU, and most of the men were shooting their tranquilizers at her. The others were tasering her, and one woman was aiming an electrified net at her muzzle. 

Within seconds, though, three of the soldiers were dead, and one man’s heartbeat was much too erratic to be healthy. All eyes were on their vitals which were displayed for the room to see on the screen, right next to all of their camera feeds. 

Three of them managed to get back in the car and get away, but seventeen people were dead by the end of it. 

The control room was silent again, as silent as it could be, anyway. 

“Code nineteen, send every ACU to the beacon she was last headed for. They’re to take the M134 and only lethal weapons. Make sure everyone is south of the resort.” Enjolras ordered, and Valjean opened his mouth to say something in protest, judging by the annoyed look on his face. “Valjean, let me do my job.” He said, sending him a glare than made him back off. 

After a moment he dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed Courfeyrac’s number, because he was much more likely to have his phone on him than Combeferre. He didn’t answer, though, so he tried ‘Ferre. When he didn’t answer, either, he started to get worried and called Jehan. 

Jehan, blessedly, answered. His end of the line was loud, so he guessed he must’ve been on Main Street with all of the other twenty thousand guests.

“Thank God, Jehan, can I talk to ‘Ferre or Courf?” He asked.

“Enjolras, I’m sorry, but I lost them.” Jehan said, and he did sound apologetic, at least. Jehan was always sincere, but still, Enjolras wanted to scream.

“Okay, that’s fine, do you know where they last were?” He asked.

“The Mosasaurus feeding, but that was an hour ago.” Jehan said. Enjolras forced out a thank you and hung up. 

“Check the gyrospheres. Have they all been returned?” Enjolras ordered, pointing at Bossuet. He sighed and started pressing the controls on his tablet to show him the valley.

“Yes, it’s my job to check them- Right, so gyrosphere seven is still out. The signal is going in and out, though, and it isn’t in the valley.” Bossuet said, showing him he location of the gyrosphere, and, no, it was in the buffer zone between attractions. It was north, though, very north of the resort. Too close to where the Indominus had been heading for Enjolras’ comfort.

“I need an ACU search and rescue sent to their location, there are two guests missing.” Enjolras said into his headset, speaking directly with the new ACU captain.

“We’re a little busy with your dinosaur. There aren’t any units left.” She said, and Enjolras felt himself start to panic. 

“I can go down there.” Grantaire offered. 

“Okay, I’ll come with you.” Enjolras said decidedly, nodding to himself, because he needed to know they were okay. Grantaire opened his mouth to tell him off, but Enjolras simply raised his eyebrows at him expectantly. He relented and started walking out of the control room. “Keep me updated.” He said, looking mostly at Musichetta. She nodded, and Enjolras accepted that and got onto the elevator to stand next to Grantaire.


	2. Chapter 2

Eponine got the call issuing code nineteen right when she was finishing up feeding R’s raptors. That’d be an awesome name for the exhibit, actually. ‘R’s Raptors’. Anyway, she, Bahorel, and Feuilly were checking the raptors like they usually did, checking the vitals and feeding them, while Javert walked by every so often and all but leered at them. 

Bahorel had been talking quietly with Feuilly about who the fuck knew what, and Eponine really wished he’d just tell him he liked him. It felt oddly like middle school, and she wasn’t a fan of it. 

Gavroche came around at one point, because somehow the little kid managed to evade being caught hanging about the raptor paddocks. 

“The newest dinosaur got out, that’s what the call was about.” Gavroche said, and she didn’t even want to know how he knew that. 

“So, obviously you know everything north of the resort is closed.” Eponine said, and Gavroche hummed a ‘yes’. “Which means that you should be down there instead of here.” She said, because they were very north of the resort. 

“I’m waiting on you. Like hell I’m gonna let you die and leave me with Mom or Dad.” He said, and, yeah, she couldn’t blame him on that one.

“Fine, I’ll be ready to leave in a minute. Go save one of the big Jeeps, we’re driving ‘Rel and Feuilly back with us.” She said. Feuilly shot her a smile in thanks, and Bahorel barely nodded at her. 

 

—

Enjolras decided to let Grantaire drive the Jeep, because he felt too shaky to focus on anything. They got to the valley quickly, though, albeit Grantaire wasn’t exactly driving cautiously, and Enjolras didn’t see a dinosaur for the first five minutes, which was odd. Then, though, they got over a hill, and Enjolras saw one on its side, an Apatosaurus with a gash in its neck. Grantaire parked the car and got out, slowly approaching the dinosaur that was breathing shallowly. Enjolras followed several steps behind him, eventually crouching down on the other side of the dinosaur’s head as Grantaire. Grantaire was a natural with her, obviously, petting her head and generally making the dinosaur ease. 

He reached out a hand, and he didn’t know why he was looking at Grantaire for permission, but he waited until he nodded to pet the side of the dinosaur’s head. 

She died maybe a minute later, and Enjolras’ eyes got a little blurry. Grantaire stood up and walked a few feet away, breathing out a small ‘holy shit’ at one point. Enjolras stood up and walked over to stand next to him, and he was horrified that his first thought upon seeing six other dead Apatosauruses was that that’d set them back at least five years. Not that seven magnificent creatures had been killed, but that the park would suffer. 

It made him want to vomit. 

“She’s killing for sport.” Grantaire said, and then Enjolras felt the somberness of the situation. 

They turned back and got in the car, but Grantaire sat there for a minute, annoyed breathing and hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. Enjolras understood, honestly, but he wanted to find his friends. Eventually, the Jeep was headed for the missing gyrosphere. The hole the Indominus undoubtedly made in the fence was there, which explained how Courfeyrac and Combeferre managed to get so far out of the barrier. Enjolras saw the wreckage of the gyrosphere before Grantaire parked the car, and he sort of opened the door against his better judgement, hopping out of the car while it was sort of still moving. 

Grantaire shouted at him, but what else was new. 

A neon blue phone case that could only belong to Courfeyrac was sitting in the dirt, and the phone screen was cracked, and Enjolras felt a sob bubble up from his chest. It wouldn’t have happened if he’d just taken one day off to spend time with his friends, none of it would’ve happened, nineteen people wouldn’t be dead, Courfeyrac and Combeferre would still be there. 

“Hey, I don’t think they were eaten here.” Grantaire said bluntly, and Enjolras wanted to hit him, except he was giving him hope.

“What?” He asked. 

“Footprints, come on.” Grantaire said, grabbing Enjolras’ wrist and pulling him along behind him. He saw the footprints, two sets, one was a pair of Converse, Courf’s. Combeferre’s didn’t have a recognizable brand, but that didn’t matter, because they were alive. They followed the footprints to the edge of a cliff with a lake at the bottom, and the tracks stopped there. “They were smart to jump.” Grantaire said with a nod. 

“They’re very smart. You can follow them, though, right?” Enjolras asked, and Grantaire turned to look at him indignantly.

“I’m not a dog, Enjolras. I’ll keep walking in that general direction, but you should go back to the Jeep and get help. Maybe Valjean will fly you over here to look for them from the air.” He said teasingly.

“Nonsense, I’m going with you.” He said, and Grantaire arched an eyebrow at him. 

“You’re wearing pants that probably cost more than I make in a week, go back to the car.” 

If Enjolras could’ve stripped down to his boxer briefs with dignity, then he would have, just to prove a point. 

“No, I’m coming.”

“Never expected you to say that to me.” Grantaire said, adjusting the tranquilizer gun he had slung over his shoulder. Enjolras punched his arm. “I deserve that. Look, if you’re coming with me, then I’m in charge. You can handle all indoor activities, I understand you have some weird control thing, but you’re an idiot if you think I’m gonna let you boss me around in the forest.” He said, and Enjolras hoped he looked as offended as he felt. He was probably right, though, which only made it worse. Enjolras did not have a control thing, though. 

“Lead the way, Park Ranger R.” Enjolras said, gesturing for him to start walking down the side of the cliff. Grantaire smiled at him and started walking after a second. 

“That’s the first time you’ve called me R since our date.” He said, smiling softly.

“It’s been a long day.” Enjolras defended. He could hear Grantaire rolling his eyes at him. “Okay, no, I had four different meetings before I came to get you, I’ve sent nineteen people so far to their death, a genetically enhanced carnivorous dinosaur escaped, and, again, she’s under my supervision, a park full of twenty thousand people is at danger, at least twelve dinosaurs have been killed, and my two best friends are missing in this prehistoric hell-hole of a jungle.” He said, going off on a slight rant. Grantaire was silent for a moment as he helped Enjolras down one of the four foot drops. 

“You’re not solely responsible for any of those events, y’know.” Grantaire said comfortingly. 

“I’m the park operations manager. Everything that’s happened today will be filed as my fault. Valjean would be right to fire me.” Enjolras said, rolling up the sleeves of his button down shirt, because it was hot outside. 

“He’s not gonna fire you. You’ve kept this park running smoothly for more than three years.” He insisted.

“The Indominus rex was supposed to be open to the public in three weeks, and in less than six hours, we’ve been set back years at least. Assuming the park’s still open after this incident.” He said, and Grantaire sighed.

“Knowing you, you’ll have the park put back together in no time.” He said, and that meant more to Enjolras than it should have. 

—

Courfeyrac was ready to scream at every noise in the jungle. Combeferre sensed that panic and stayed closer to him, thankfully. He’d only grabbed his arm once, though, and he felt like he was allowed to in that situation. 

After a while they came to a wrecked ATV, apparently crashed into a tree. There was blood on one of the seats, and Courfeyrac needed a moment to gather his thoughts, because he felt like he could have puked. 

“Hey, what’s that?” Combeferre said, more to himself than anything, as he started walking towards a door that was mostly hidden by the trees and brush. He made a motion telling Courfeyrac to stay while he probably went to investigate, but Courfeyrac wasn’t having any of that. No, he wasn’t letting ‘Ferre out of his sight. 

The doors were unlocked and opened after Combeferre pulled on them, and there was enough natural light from the windows to see around the abandoned building. There was a large room, resembling a lobby or gallery, with leaves, dust, dirt, even some vines in a few spots. There was a skeleton that had been knocked over a while ago, and that was laying in pieces on the floor. 

“This was the original Jurassic Park Visitors Center, back in ’93 when the T-rex and Velociraptors got loose.” Combeferre explained as they slowly moved through the room. Right. That event when five people died. Courfeyrac nodded and continued to follow him, because, really, like he would do anything else. They seemed to be in a relatively safe location, nothing was actively trying to eat them, so he decided to tell Combeferre about how he felt. Because his best friend wouldn’t just leave him alone in the jungle if he didn’t like him back, and he sort of wanted to get it off of his chest in case they died.

“Hey, can I tell you something?” Courfeyrac said, and Combeferre glanced back at him curiously before walking down a fairly dark hallway.

“Of course.” He said, and it was easy to trust him.

“Okay, so I’m pretty sure that I— Is that a Jeep?” He started, but when they walked into what seemed like a garage his train of thought shifted quickly. Combeferre didn’t even seem to remember that he was about to say something, he just walked up to the Jeep and started poking around it.

“The original Jeeps for the park. Are the keys here?” Combeferre asked, and, yeah, he had tunnel vision. Courfeyrac sighed and went with it. He spotted the keys pinned to a cork board, two sets of them. 

“Yeah, they’re over here.” He said, and Combeferre nodded, holding his arm out and making grabby hands at them. Courfeyrac couldn’t help but chuckle at that, and he tossed him the keys. The car didn’t start when he put the key into the ignition, so Combeferre popped the hood. He really wasn’t surprised that the man had at least some knowledge of how cars worked. 

“That ATV probably has a battery, yeah?” Combeferre said, looking over at him and squinting. 

“I’d assume so.” He said, because he had a very basic knowledge of vehicles. Don’t leave the lights on, or the battery will run out. Gas is important. Don’t drive while the emergency brake is on. Combeferre started walking back out through the lobby of the center, and Courfeyrac followed him, not wanting to be left alone in the dinosaur forest. They got the battery from the ATV, and Combeferre frowned and made an annoyed sound. 

“I don’t know if a six volt battery will work.” He said, and yet they tried it out anyway. 

It did work, and the two of them were elated. Courfeyrac stayed in the driver’s seat, because he was the only one who knew how to drive a stick shift. Well, he was the one who knew how to drive it well. Combeferre probably could’ve done it if both of Courfeyrac’s hands were broken. 

—

Enjolras and Grantaire had been walking for almost half an hour when they heard the unmistakable sound of an engine, and it didn’t sound too far away. They made eye contact before they were running in that direction, eventually coming up to a wrecked ATV and then the original Visitor Center of the first park. 

“There’s a garage in the back, this way,” Enjolras said, because for once he knew what to do. It was his job to know every inch of the park, and he was proud to say he’d done so. They ran through the Center to the garage, and they saw one Jeep and then next to it was a clear spot surrounded by dirt and vines. Grantaire quickly tried to turn on the Jeep, but it didn’t start, didn’t even do anything.

“How the hell did they get it started,” Grantaire mumbled to himself. 

“If they stay going straight, then they’ll get on a road that goes back to the park.” Enjolras said, trying to reassure himself. Who knew how long that would take, though. The Jeep didn’t exactly look like a race car. 

Before they could try to get the Jeep going again, though, there was a loud crash from outside. Not a car crash, thankfully, but the sound of at least a few trees falling and the pound of a large thing walking. Grantaire quickly pushed him down to sit, hiding behind the Jeep from the open garage wall. Enjolras heard breathing, far too heavy for it to be from anything but a dinosaur. He felt himself leaning against Grantaire’s side before he could process what exactly was happening. 

The Indominus pressed her head against the side of the Jeep, and Grantaire put his arm across Enjolras’ chest to keep him mostly still. After a few seconds, the dinosaur left them alone, and Enjolras couldn’t help but let out a breath of relief. 

That almost immediately seemed to be a horrible decision, because she let out a roar and knocked her head through the roof of the garage. 

“Go, go, run,” Grantaire shouted at him over the commotion, pushing Enjolras out in front of himself. 

—

The control room had mostly recovered out of the necessity of doing its job after the Indominus rex escaped. Valjean hadn’t left, and he instead stood in Enjolras’ usual spot. Both Bossuet and Musichetta thought that was odd. Then again, their newest asset was loose and had killed almost twenty people, so the situation warranted it. 

Someone on the end of Musichetta’s headset informed her that the M134 gun wouldn’t fit on any of their trucks, and she relayed that information to Valjean. He nodded and thought for a moment.

“Will it fit on the helicopter?” Jean Valjean asked, looking down at her. 

“Yes, but your instructor isn’t here.” She said. He didn’t seem to mind that piece of information.

“This is an emergency, so I will fly it. Do we know where the Indominus is?” He asked, and Bossuet sighed.

“Enjolras messaged us that she was killing in the valley, but that was more than an hour ago.” He said. 

“I’ll go get the chopper and the gun in the air and head there.” Valjean said, and then he left. Bossuet alerted the ACU that at least one person had to go to the chopper to fire the gun, and two soldiers said they’d meet him there and bring the M134 with them. 

Fifteen minutes later, the helicopter was clumsily flying towards the valley. 

“Any eyes on the dinosaur?” Valjean asked over the headset. 

“No.” Bossuet answered.

Musichetta was already dialing Enjolras’ number when Valjean said to call him, and she smirked to herself. Enjolras was calling her, though, before she could get the second number typed. She put him on speaker phone, because Valjean would want to hear what he said.

“Enjol—“ She started to say, but Enjolras cut her off from his end. 

“The Indominus is at the visitors center from the original park heading towards the Aviary.” Enjolras said, and it sounded like he was panting. His end of the line was quite loud, and he sounded oddly disheveled. It was like seeing your school teacher at a bar or something.

“The Indominus is heading to the Aviary from the original park’s visitors center.” Musichetta said for Valjean. 

“On my way.” He said affirmatively.

“Wait, are you following the dinosaur?” Bossuet asked incredulously. 

“It’s following us, technically.” Enjolras said. Musichetta quickly pulled up Grantaire’s tracker, which showed a dot headed towards the aviary. Enjolras insisted that he didn’t need a tracker, even when everyone else had to have one installed on their watch, cell phone, etc. Bossuet was telling someone on his headset to send a car to their location.

“Grantaire’s with you?” She asked.

“Yes, we are both running from the dinosaur, please send something out here.” He answered, shouting into the phone.

“Valjean’s on his way with the helicopter and the M134.” She said. Enjolras let out a shriek halfway through the sentence, but his panted breathing returned a second later. The call ended from Enjolras’ side after he shouted a short ‘call later’. She should’ve asked if he’d found his friends. 

—

Something, and, truly, Enjolras was eternally grateful for whatever that something was, dragged the Indominus’ attention away from him and Grantaire. Upon further inspection it turned out to be Valjean’s helicopter, which was shooting a large amount of bullets at her. It didn’t seem to be slowing her down, though, which was worrying.

“You okay?” Grantaire asked as they paused for a moment to catch their breath. 

“Yeah. Come on, the Aviary shouldn’t be too far ahead.” He said, walking in the direction the dinosaur had gone. 

They came to the edge of the forest, and there was about thirty feet of just grass between the trees and the cliff. Below the cliff was a large fifteen story drop at least, and in the large plain below there was a hemispherical shaped building that housed all of the Pterosaurs of the park. The Aviary. 

The Indominus, while she continued to be shot at, made a beeline for the building, and it ran headfirst through the glass windows on one side. Enjolras panicked, because the flying dinosaurs were slowly starting to realize that there was an opening, and three or four had already flown out. Two of them flew up, straight for Valjean’s helicopter. The bullets from the M134 didn’t even seem to slow the birds down, and one knocked what appeared to be the shooter out of the chopper, and the other dive-bombed the front. 

The helicopter had been knocked around, and it was falling from the sky before Enjolras could suck in a breath of surprise. It crashed through the glass, and the explosion was visible even from where he and Grantaire stood. 

“Holy fuck,” Grantaire muttered, and Enjolras’ thoughts weren’t too far off from that. 

Then, though, what looked like a swarm of Pterosaurs flew out of the aviary. 

“Trees, go to the trees,” Grantaire said, turning around to run back towards the trees, pulling Enjolras with him. He heard the screeches from the dinosaurs, and he felt the rush of air as one flew about two feet over their head. They ended up diving behind a tree, using it as a hiding place. Lots of hiding that day. Grantaire let his head fall back against the tree trunk, all dirty, sweaty, generally looking exhausted, and his curly black hair was a mess. Enjolras’ chest felt tight looking at him. 

He probably didn’t look much better, to be honest. His hair was an absolute wreck, his shirt had several holes in it, one of the sleeves was about to fall off, and his pants had a few tears on them, but they were mostly just covered in dirt and mud. A horrible day to wear light grey pants and a white dress shirt.

Musichetta called him while they were waiting for the Pterosaurs to vacate the area.

“There’s an ACU headed your way, they’re bringing you two a car to head back to the park.” She said quickly.

“Thank you.” Enjolras breathed out. 

“It’s en route to Grantaire’s location, and it should be there in less than two minutes.” Musichetta said, and the call ended after they said goodbye to one another. He told Grantaire that a car was coming for them, and he nodded. 

Two ACU Jeeps pulled up to them about a minute later. One woman got out of one of the Jeeps, which was empty beside her, and she handed Enjolras the keys.

“Where’s this one going?” Enjolras asked as the woman opened the side door of the other Jeep which was full of people and got in.

“Lock up the aviary.” She said, and their conversation was left at that. 

He gave Grantaire the keys and sat down in the passenger seat, and they started driving back towards the park at full speed. Definitely faster than Enjolras’ Prius went. 

—

A lot of footsteps coming off the elevator caught Musichetta’s attention, and she saw Javert, InGen’s security division manager, leading about ten people wearing InGen shirts and gear into the control room. 

“InGen is taking over the situation from here on out, after Jean Valjean’s unfortunate death. All of you are relieved of duty.” Javert said loudly. Bossuet made eye contact with her, and it was apparent that neither of them were leaving. Ninety percent of the other people, though, did stand up to leave. Musichetta didn’t blame them, the Indominus was terrifying, and they had a right to choose their own safety over staying. Musichetta’s boyfriend Joly was down in the park’s first aid area, though, and she was staying with him. And leaving Bossuet behind would suck, too. 

—

Javert walked into the lab, and the door startled Cosette, because everyone else had left to catch the first ferry after the Pterosaurs escaped. She didn’t know what he wanted, but she knew she wanted him out of her lab. 

“I will get you and the embryos, everything you need from here, off of this island, if you agree to help me once this is all over.” Javert said, standing on the other side of the table that she was cleaning up.

“And what is it you want me to do?” She asked. If it was what he’d brought up with her every time he was down there, then her answer was no.

“Militarize the dinosaurs. Make the Indominus rex a fifth of the size, it’d be the perfect wartime machine when all of our technology, all of our drones go dark.” He said.

“No.” She answered, and Javert just looked at her with a stony face. “It’s a highly unreliable plan. I don’t doubt Grantaire has informed you of the risk of using Velociraptors, and the Indominus wouldn’t be any better. It’d be worse, actually, in case you haven’t been paying attention to today’s events.” Cosette said.

“He’s trained them, though. At least authorize me to use the raptors in a field test tonight.” 

“Why on earth would you risk that tonight? The solution to a loose dinosaur is not more loose dinosaurs.” She said, and Javert sighed.

“Jean Valjean died, so InGen has stepped up to take command until a time when we can get the legal issues taken care of. I am in control, and I’m doing a field test tonight. Your authorization would just make more people believe in its viability.” He said. Javert turned around and left then, and the only thing his visit did was infuriate her. 

—

Combeferre and Courfeyrac had been driving for about five minutes, and he had the Jeep going as fast as it would go. Which was about forty miles per hour. Forty-five if they were going downhill, but that’d only happened once. 

“You were about to say something back there, right?” Combeferre said, turning slightly in his seat to look at him, and Courfeyrac sort of froze. 

“Yeah, but it’s not important.” He said with a shrug. 

“It sounded pretty important when you brought it up.” He said, because of course he saw right through that. Courfeyrac thought for a second, thinking about whether or not it was worth it to tell him. They were sharing a hotel room for the rest of the week, he didn’t want to ruin Combeferre’s trip by making things awkward. Combeferre was awesome, though, he’d probably find a way to make it not awkward. 

“Okay, so, like, I value our friendship, you know that, right?” Courfeyrac started. 

“Yes, as do I.” He said, and Courfeyrac nodded. 

“And I’d never do anything to mess with it, but I think—“ 

“Courf, drive faster.” Combeferre said, looking behind them with wide and slightly terrified eyes. Courfeyrac was getting really fucking tired of being interrupted.

“Why, what is it?” He asked, but he tried to make the Jeep go faster anyway. 

“Dimorphodons and Pteranodons are getting close to us.” He said.

“What the hell is a dimorphine?” 

“Dimorphodon, and their dinosaur birds.” He said, and that was not the time to be correcting his pronunciation.

“Like Pterodactyls?” Courfeyrac asked.

“Pterosaurs, but yes.” He said. 

After another minute they were approaching the park walls, and they were on a narrow road that led straight to a gate. 

The two grown men in the Jeep started shouting wildly at the security guards on top of the wall to let them in, and, after about half a minute of solid screaming, they finally opened the fucking door. 

—

Everything was chaotic inside the park. The sirens were going off, people were running and screaming, the Pterosaurs were attacking the guests. It was a legal nightmare, and Enjolras dreaded the thought of having to deal with it the next day. Assuming they were still alive, of course. 

His phone started ringing, Jehan, and he quickly answered it.

“Hello?” He said frantically.

“Combeferre and Courfeyrac were spotted approaching the west gate at least ten minutes ago.” Jehan said, and Enjolras could hear people yelling in the background.

“Thank you.” He said meaningfully. 

Grantaire somehow managed to drive without hitting anyone, but he eventually had to park the car when they hit Main Street, because there were so many people. He grabbed his tranquilizer gun and started shooting the birds down, standing right up there with the ACU soldiers. Enjolras, on the other hand, stood on top of a bench, shouting for Combeferre and Courfeyrac. 

Courfeyrac was wearing mint green skinny jeans and a bright white t-shirt, it shouldn’t have been hard to spot him. ‘Ferre, though had been in a dark purple t-shirt and khaki shorts. 

You could tell which of them knew what they were doing.

He didn’t see either of them, which worried him. Everything was connected to Main Street, they had to pass through there if they wanted to get to their hotel or basically anywhere. 

The ACU seemed to be struggling to keep the Pterosaurs at bay, and what was a tight line when he and Grantaire showed up had turned into three guys including Grantaire while the rest of the team had either been wounded, run away, or, as with one case, carried off by a particularly large Pteranodon. Enjolras kept shouting and looking for his friends, right up until he heard a crash from behind him.

Grantaire had been pushed onto his back, and a Dimorphodon was about an inch away from biting into his face. A tranquilizer gun was discarded on the sidewalk, so, naturally, Enjolras grabbed that and shot the bird. And then he shot it again. And maybe a few more times, just to be safe. Grantaire was looking up at him with a sort of awe, so Enjolras held his hand out to help him up. He took it, and he stared at Enjolras for half a second before he spoke. 

“Can I kiss you?” Grantaire asked, and Enjolras felt himself nod. And then Grantaire was stepping very far into his personal space, wrapping an arm around his waist, and kissing him softly. Enjolras leaned into it, curling a hand around the back of Grantaire’s neck to pull him closer and deepen the kiss. He moved, trying to shift closer to Grantaire, which made no sense since their chests were already pressing together. 

It was good. The kiss was very, very good. Enjolras mentally kicked himself when he realized they could’ve been doing that since their date, because he probably could’ve been a bit more easy going with that night. 

Enjolras pulled back first, because, yes, the kiss was fantastic, but that was not the time to make out. They sort of just looked at each other for a few seconds, and Grantaire had a soft smile on his face, and it was beautiful. 

Out of the corner of his eye, though, he saw Courfeyrac’s neon pants, and then he was running out of Grantaire’s arms and launching himself at the two of them. 

“Oh my god, I thought you two were dead.” Enjolras exclaimed as they hugged him back tightly. He stepped back, and while they didn’t exactly look bad, they didn’t look so good, either. Combeferre’s glasses were incredibly dirty, and Courfeyrac’s shirt was a lovely shade of brown, as opposed to its original white. Their hair was a mess, too, but, hey, who wasn’t having a bad hair day at that point?

“Who’s that?” Combeferre asked, looking at Grantaire, who took that as his cue to walk up to the three of them.

“What? Right, uh, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, this is Grantaire. We work together.” Enjolras said, and Combeferre looked skeptical. Courfeyrac, alternatively, beamed.

“Yeah, I see that.” Courfeyrac said, and Combeferre elbowed his side. 

“We should get somewhere safe.” Grantaire said, motioning for them to follow him. All three of them did, and Grantaire led them to one of the Jeeps that ACU drove down there. No one probably minded them borrowing it. Grantaire drove while ‘Ferre and Courf sat in the back. Grantaire’s phone started ringing as he was about to start driving, though, probably to take Combeferre and Courfeyrac back to their hotel or to the ferry. He dug his phone out of his pocket before handing it to Enjolras, and he answered it, putting it on speakerphone.

“Bossuet, what’s up?” Grantaire asked as he started driving, deftly managing to avoid crashing into anyone or any dinosaurs.

“Hey, okay, Javert’s taken charge up here, he came in a while ago with all his storm troopers after Valjean died, and he keeps mentioning the raptors.” Bossuet said quietly from the other end. 

“Son of a bitch,” Grantaire said, and then he was driving faster. 

“I take it you know what he’s doing?” Bossuet said.

“Yes, thank you. Is he still at the control room?” Grantaire asked.

“No, he left a few minutes ago. He’s been watching everyone who stayed behind like a hawk.” He said. 

“He has no authority to do that. I could’ve just as easily taken control of the park if I’d been there.” Enjolras said, mostly to himself. 

“Thanks, Bossuet.” Grantaire said, and Bossuet said goodbye to him. 

“You’re driving in the opposite direction of the velociraptors, y’know.” Enjolras pointed out.

“I have to drop your friends off somewhere safe.” He said.

“Hey, no, we wanna stay with you.” Courfeyrac said from the backseat. 

“I know, I’m not letting either of you two out of my sight for the rest of—“ Enjolras started to say.

“No, Grantaire.” Combeferre said, and Enjolras turned around to look at them both incredulously.

“Yeah, can we stay with you?” Courfeyrac said. 

“Definitely him.” Combeferre said. Grantaire smirked.

“Sure, just hold on.” Grantaire said before he made a sharp U-turn. Enjolras was knocked into the passenger door, and he glared at Grantaire. He started driving towards one of the maintenance alleys, and it was mostly empty of people. 

Then, though, they turned onto a long, narrow street with a large, solid looking gate at the end. Grantaire swore loudly, but then there was frantic pounding on the large wooden doors, and it looked to be budging quite a lot. 

The doors were thrown open after another second, and then people and Pterosaurs were flooding through the gate. 

“Reverse, reverse!” Enjolras said, hitting at Grantaire’s arm, because their car was taking up ninety percent of the alley. Grantaire drove the car backwards, safely out of the alley and back onto Main Street. Enjolras was sort of amazed. 

The Main Street of the park had cleared out slightly by that point, which made it easier for Grantaire to go fifty miles per hour in the middle of the road, barely avoiding various pieces of debris. Once they were out of the main Park area, they got onto a road that went from the park, to the control room, and then to various other paddocks not in the park. Such as everything in sector five, including the Indominus and the Velociraptors. When they got onto that road, Grantaire was driving the Jeep as fast as it’d go, which was impressive considering it wasn’t the straightest road. 

They got to the Velociraptor paddock in what Enjolras thought must have been record time, and it was starting to get dark by the time he parked the car. Grantaire slammed his door when he got out, marching up to Javert, and he punched him square in the jaw. Enjolras quickly got out of the Jeep, because he did not need them fighting when the Indominus was still running wild. 

Javert didn’t look like he was about to retaliate, though, and Grantaire didn’t seem too likely to punch him again. So that was good. 

“You motherfucker, after everything you’ve seen and heard about these raptors, about these animals, you’re still going through with your fucking plan to use them as a weapon?!” Grantaire said, only slight of shouting. 

“Look, your velociraptors can hunt. I’m seeing the perfect opportunity to test my theory and bring down your little science project. It’s happening with or without you.” Javert said, and Grantaire huffed a breath. 

—

“This is a simple hide and seek routine, they’ve done it hundreds of times. Stay out of their way, they’ll find the Indominus and surround her.” Grantaire said, explaining the drill to the ACU team that would be accompanying him, Bahorel, and Eponine on the mission. Feuilly would’ve gone, but there weren’t enough bikes. Grantaire even had to use his own motorcycle, which was fine by him. He felt more comfortable on it, anyway.

“What if they don’t find it?” One of the guys asked. 

“Don’t talk shit about my raptors.” Grantaire said, not bothering to look at the guy. “You all have one, giant, white target. She’s not easy to miss. Please don’t shoot my raptors.” He said seriously, because he was worried enough about the mission as it was. 

Grantaire left to go check on the raptors, make sure the ACU’s cameras weren’t hurting them in any way. 

“Grantaire?” He heard a voice behind him ask, and he turned around to see Enjolras’ Combeferre and Courfeyrac standing, leaning on the outside of the gate. 

“Hey,” Grantaire said, walking up to stand closer to the gate. 

“They’re not safe, are they?” The tall one asked. Grantaire thought his name was Combeferre, so he’d go with that. The introductions happened when they were all being terrorized by Pterosaurs, forgive him for not remembering their names.

“No, not at all.” He said, because he was too tired to lie at that point.

“What’re their names?” Courfeyrac asked. Grantaire smiled, because that question was easier to answer.

“She’s Delta,” He said, pointing to the one closest to them, “Echo, Charlie,” He said, continuing to point to each of them respectively, “and Blue, she’s the beta.” 

“Which one’s the alpha?” Combeferre asked, and he legitimately sounded intrigued. Grantaire decided he liked him. Not like he liked Enjolras, he didn’t want to kiss Combeferre. Really, it looked like Courfeyrac wanted to, judging by the way he kept looking at him. 

“You’re looking at him.” Grantaire said, because that was always a good conversation starter. 

Combeferre looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but a loud speaker went off, and someone said to get into place. 

Less than ten minutes later, he was on his bike, and everyone was ready to go. Grantaire nodded at Feuilly, the sign to let the raptors out of their pen, and the gate opened with a loud buzz. 

He felt a strange mix of pride and fear at seeing the raptors run wild, even though he was only five feet behind them and getting closer. After they had to jump over or run underneath a tree, he ended up in front of them. It didn’t even occur to him that they could have bitten his head off then and there, but oh well. 

—

Grantaire told Enjolras to stay at the Velociraptor paddock, get somewhere safe, and wait there until he came back for them. Enjolras, knowing every inch of the park and every detail or specification, took one look at a veterinary truck and decided that would suffice. 

It was big, built like a tank, basically an ambulance for dinosaurs. Small dinosaurs, of course. 

“Okay, come on. Get in there.” Enjolras told Courfeyrac and Combeferre, opening the back doors of the truck. 

“Why?” Courfeyrac asked indignantly.

“This is as safe as I can get you without taking you back to the control room, and I’m not leaving Grantaire here.” He said.

“Where are you going?” Combeferre asked.

“The driver’s seat.” 

“Why can’t we sit up there?” Courfeyrac said. Talking to them was like speaking with four year olds. Why, why, why, why don’t you shut the hell up. 

It’d been a long day. 

“Three grown adults are not going to fit in a two seater.” Enjolras said, and then, when that didn’t convince them, “Please.” And they both listened, climbing up into the back of the van and sitting with their back against the wall between the front part and the back. Enjolras shut the doors and got into the driver’s seat, but his shirt got caught on something in the door. His sleeve had been pulled completely off by that point, so he went ahead and took the shirt off, because he was wearing an undershirt. 

—

The raptors started slowing down after less than a mile of running at top speed. They had the Indominus’ scent, he knew they’d caught something. They stopped at a clearing, and Grantaire got off his bike. Bahorel and Eponine got off of their ATVs, too, but they had the common sense to crouch behind a fallen tree, peeking out over the top with their tranquilizer guns. The ACU team did that as well, except several people had rocket launchers, and all of them had lethal weapons. It all made Grantaire very nervous about the raptors. 

Then, though, there was a sound from the trees past the clearing, and that somehow got his attention off of his raptors. It’d been a long day, and he was sad to say that, at that point, he knew what the Indominus rex sounded like. 

“R, get down.” Eponine said, pulling on his arm, and he slowly crouched down. 

The Indominus came out of the trees, standing at her full terrifying height and length in the clearing, and the Velociraptors were backing up from her. She, the Indominus, made a sound that was awfully similar to the sounds the raptors used to communicate, and then Blue made one back at her. 

“Something’s wrong.” Bahorel whispered, glancing at Grantaire for a second. 

“How the fuck are they communicating?” Eponine mumbled, and Grantaire felt like he was going to be sick.

“She’s part raptor.” Grantaire said as the dinosaurs finished making sounds at each other, and the raptors turned around and looked at all of the humans. 

Grantaire felt like their eyes were on him, like the raptors were watching him specifically, but it’d been a long day, so that might’ve just been a hallucination. 

The Indominus made another sound, and then someone fired their gun. So, naturally, everyone else started firing their guns. The bullets didn’t look to even hurt the Indominus, instead only pissing her off. The Velociraptors scrambled, and that, somehow, worried Grantaire more than the ten ton dinosaur.

As the Indominus was heading away from the clearing, someone shot her with a rocket launcher. There was a large flume of smoke and fire, and Grantaire’s first thought was that he hoped none of his raptors were caught in that. The Indominus was forced onto her side from the blast, but she was back up and pissier than ever. She let out an awful roar before stomping away, sadly in the direction of the park. 

“Watch for the raptors. They’ve got a new alpha.” Grantaire shouted for all the ACU members to hear. Eponine and Bahorel were staying close to him while everyone moved more or less as a group to follow the Indominus and the raptors. There was a scream to Grantaire’s left, though, and, yeah, the raptors got someone. 

Between the first and fourth person to be dragged kicking and screaming from the group, he’d been separated from Bahorel and Eponine. 

He saw one of the raptors, though, Charlie, eating something that was probably human in the tall grass in front of him. She looked up, and Grantaire felt an annoying amount of hope at those few seconds of eye contact, before he heard another rocket being fired.

The next thing he knew he was on his ass, and there was fire where Charlie had been.


End file.
